The Pride of a Samurai

        My son Dayton has grown this great like or love well to be honest obsession with the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure characters. So much so that every day when he comes home from school, comes from the store, get out the bath, basically every time he not doing something that doesn’t allow him to not have it on, the first thing he does is head straight for his toy room and jump in to his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, Raphael. If you don't already know, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), are comic book characters from the 1980's. The TMNT main characters are four turtles that came in to contact with a slimy green colored chemical called, "The Ooze", which transformed them from basically normal household pets to human size, walking, talking turtles. Their father figure, Sensei, is a large human like rat, Master Splinter, that also came in contact with Ooze just prior to the turtles encounter. He apparently was an actual pet of a Samurai that was killed by another character of the comic book, Shredder, whom I'm sure you'll hear about in later blogs. The rat, who also walks and talks, teaches the teenage like turtles the elite fundamental skills of being a Samurai, which they use to protect the city against evil. Raphael, is one of the four TMNT characters, he is distinguished from the other turtles by his choose of weaponry, Sais, and his red head hand and red karate belt. The others also have a distinctive choose of weaponry and headband and belt color. Raphael, the physically and mentally stronger of the four and second in charge, has a rebellious like demeanor and has become my son's favorite turtle of the four. Which is obviously the reason for purchasing this particular character and since purchasing the costume this past Halloween, he has probably worn it more than he's wet the bed. The costume and character has come become so important to my son and such a significant part of his life that it's been use, at times, as leverage in certain 4 year old moments in my day to day life. With that been said, hopefully you better understand the importance of his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle image and his dedication and devotion to becoming the greatest crime fighting ninja turtle every.

            So the other day my cousin who's about the same age as me come over to visit, "me", so he says, and as usual my son dressed in his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume, did his usually routine when visitors arrive to the house and came flying off the forth stair directly into his ninja turtle fighting stands. My cousin, very much into comic books and the virtual gaming world did as he usually does when he comes by and began role playing some character my son assigned him to be. They play for about an hour or so before my son, acting out a scene from the actually movie, throws his, very soft and kid appropriate, weapon, the Sais at my cousin. My cousin, trying to teach him what’s the right and wrong way to play, tells my son that throwing things at people isn't okay no matter what. My son, very understanding and sensible, agrees to not do and they continue playing for a little while longer before he forgets and throws it again. This time my cousin says, "I told you that, that's not okay", and holds the Sais to sort of discipline my son and help him better understand right from wrong and the consequence for not obeying the roles. My son does what he always does when he doesn't agree with someone or something comes to tell his 6'3" 240lb father. Trying to get him to understand that what he did was not acceptable, I reasserted what my cousin had already explained and told him that if he went over and apologized that might return the Sais to him. After saying that I added, "If Raphael made a mistake, he would apologize", just as apologized rolled off my tongue, I realize I had made a mistake and this was not the best time to try and use the TMNT as leverage. My son, dressed in his Raphael, TMNT costume from head to toe, looked directly into my eye's, got I his TMNT fighting stands and said, "Sensei", that's the rat, "I'm a great warrior and I must not show weakness". Wanting to enforce what my cousin and I were initially trying to teach my son, we couldn't help but to fall out laughing. I eventually got him to step outside his self, his ninja turtle self, and apologized after about a half an hour or so.